UK Use
of Tasers by Metropolitan Police doubles over two years24.01.2013The
number of times that officers from London's Metropolitan Police
used Tasers increased sharply between 2011 and 2012, and figures
covering the first three months of 2013 indicate that usage is
likely to increase further.

Tasers are electroshock weapons that deliver
a 50,000 volt charge into the body through metal barbs. According
to figures released at the end of last year in response to a
Freedom of Information request, in 2011 officers used them 378
times. The total for 2012 was 713, an increase of 188%. [1]

The force also released figures for the
first three months of 2013, when officers used the electroshock
weapons 353 times. If this level of use continued throughout
the following nine months of 2013, then the total would be approximately
double the 2012 figure.

The police response to the Freedom of Information
request, which was published on the Met's disclosure log, [2]
notes that due to the "roll out" of an increased number
of Tasers to London borough forces: "the number of offcer's
[sic] trained in Taser increased throughout 2012/13 which would
have resulted in an increase in Taser use".

Last week Thames Valley Police was criticised
by Amnesty International UK after it was revealed that its use
of Tasers had doubled. Its officers deployed the weapons 61 times
in 2012 and 119 times in 2013. [3]

In September last year Home Office figures
revealed that, nationwide, police use of Tasers more than doubled
between 2009 (3,128 uses) and 2011 (7,877) uses. [4]

The technology allows the recording of
each individual use. These come under a number of categories:

drawing of a Taser in circumstances where
any person perceives the action as a use of force;

sparking of the Taser commonly known as
"arcing";

aiming of the Taser or placing the laser
sight red dot onto a subject;

firing of a Taser so that barbs are discharged
at a subject; and

application and discharge of a Taser in
"drive stun mode" to a subject. [5]

"Drive stun" involves giving
an individual an electric shock by holding a Taser directly against
their body, without firing the barbs.

In 2011 Tasers were fired or used in "drive
stun" mode 129 times, in 2012 147 times, and in the first
three months of 2013 48 times.

Increases over the period are sharpest
in the "red dot" and "drawn" categories.

In 2011 Metropolitan Police officers aimed
the weapon's red laser dot at individuals 148 times. In 2012
this jumped to 307 times - an increase of over 200% - and in
the first three months of 2013 the "red dot" was deployed
172 times.

In 2011 officers drew Tasers 75 times;
in 2012, 213 times; and in the first three months of 2013, 102
times. From 2011 to 2012, the figures equate to a 284% increase.

The issuing of thousands more Tasers to
police in London was heavily criticised last October when the
London Assembly's Police and Crime Committee, made up of elected
representatives, said in a report that the decision took place
"through private conversations and behind closed doors"
and "did now allow Londoners an opportunity to challenge
the MPS's reasoning or determine how successfully Taser had been
used in the past." [6]

Last week it was announced that Lancashire
Police have set a date for a disciplinary hearing for an officer
who in 2012 used a Taser on a blind stroke victim after mistaking
his white stick for a samurai sword, [7] and in October last
year two officers from Merseyside police were sacked after they
wrongfully arrested a man and Tasered him five times. [8]Further reading

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